Carl Sagan
Mass Market Paperback | Pages: 398 pages Rating: 4.04 | 9653 Users | 272 Reviews
Present Books In Pursuance Of Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science
| Original Title: | Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science |
| ISBN: | 0345336895 (ISBN13: 9780345336897) |
| Edition Language: | English URL http://www.carlsagan.com/ |
| Literary Awards: | National Book Award Finalist for Science (Paperback) (1981) |
Ilustration Concering Books Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science
It's very hard to give a review and rating for the entirety of this book. From chapter to chapter it feels disjointed and varies quite a bit in both content and quality. I seem forced to review the different parts and chapters individually.The first "part" of the book, titled "Science and Human Concern" and encompassing the first four chapters, showcases Sagan's eloquent and brilliant writing especially well. In these chapters I learned new things and gained a new appreciation for Einstein's incredible mind; One would be hard-pressed to argue the book doesn't start off strong.
The next part, called "The Paradoxers", starts of well enough, explaining and refuting various pseudoscientific and paranormal beliefs. But in chapter 7 Sagan spends over 50 pages refuting the claims made in a specific book called "Worlds in Collision" written by a specific author named Velikovsky. This would be fine if I were reading Broca's brain 30 years ago when it was published, but as it is I have never heard anyone repeating the ridiculous claims spouted by Velikovsky so I wasn't very interested in their refutations. I ended up skimming through most of the chapter. This is just one of the ways the book suffers from how dated it is. After this, part two continues with a couple good chapters, the first on theological arguments and second on science fiction.
The next two parts of Broca's Brain are both mostly concerned with astronomy, space exploration, and humanity's future. They continue to vary in quality from a great chapter on Robert H. Goddard's tireless work towards space exploration to a terribly boring chapter on choosing namesakes for features of other planets.
The final part skeptically examines religion and does a pretty good job until it ends with a chapter concerning hypothesis that explains religious stories and experiences in terms of subconscious memories of birth that's almost Freudian in its level of wild speculation.
Broca's Brain is magnificent at times, but at times it's dense enough to make up for it, and overall it just felt too muddled for me to give it a very good rating.
Be Specific About Out Of Books Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science
| Title | : | Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science |
| Author | : | Carl Sagan |
| Book Format | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 398 pages |
| Published | : | February 12th 1986 by Ballantine Books (first published April 12th 1979) |
| Categories | : | Science. Nonfiction. Philosophy. History |
Rating Out Of Books Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science
Ratings: 4.04 From 9653 Users | 272 ReviewsEvaluation Out Of Books Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science
Part of my five start rating is for the book itself, but a big part of my experience of "Broca's Brain" is inextricably tangled up with memories of sitting late at night at the kitchen table with my father when I was a teenager, discussing Sagan, the brain, and life itself. We didn't know then that my erudite, articulate father's future would involve a fall and a chronic brain injury that would profoundly affect Wernicke's area and his ability to read and communicate. Much of the neuroscience inA re-read after 13 years certainly was worth the effort for at least a few chapters. Although a lot of information must be now updated considering this being a 1979 (updated) edition, this book must have been intense at that time. An entire section is dedicated to debunking "Paradoxers" which occupies more than a quarter of the book, especially on Immanuel Velikovsky's theories.Certain introductory chapters dealing with "Why Science?", "Albert Einstein" and "about the lack of public education in
I've been on a Sagan kick, but this was a tough read to get through. The book is a little technical, but even more tedious in sections, discussing in depth discoveries of the 1950s and 1960s. The best parts of the book require a grasping understand of the nature of present day astronomy to compare and contrast with what Sagan thinks will occur. Ever the optimist, it is a little disappointing to realize that we have not come close to the explorations that Sagan envisioned in the late 1970s. Some
Although some of the book is dated since it was written in the early 1970s, it was still an interesting book. It contains essays covering different topics. Although the ideas can be deep, Sagan is able to communicate the ideas to the masses. The title of the book comes from the opportunity Sagan had to hold the brain of one of his idols. He wondered if future scientific advances would allow us to be able to obtain the memories of a deceased person. He then goes on to say that it would be the
Carl Sagan instigates within me a deep will to know, to leave the myths that might reduce me to lurk in the shadows of deep-seated ignorance. I've read many of his books so far and they have all inspired me, they all served a specific purpose.This book followed the premise of all of the others and made me, in essence a better, wiser person.
This is a collection of essays, all somehow related to science. I read it over the course of several months - not because it wasn't interesting, but because sometimes I just wasn't in the mood for it. The articles on skepticism and the history of science were fascinating, but the later descriptions of the "current" situation in astronomy and planetary science was more than a touch dated. (It was written in the 1970s.) All the same, it was still Sagan, and I do so enjoy reading Sagan. I look
It's very hard to give a review and rating for the entirety of this book. From chapter to chapter it feels disjointed and varies quite a bit in both content and quality. I seem forced to review the different parts and chapters individually. The first "part" of the book, titled "Science and Human Concern" and encompassing the first four chapters, showcases Sagan's eloquent and brilliant writing especially well. In these chapters I learned new things and gained a new appreciation for Einstein's
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.